About Maxfield Papillon

Born June 22, 2005 – Died March 22, 2013 – Maxfield Papillon was named after the American painter and illustrator, Maxfield Parrish, who was an active artist in the first half of the 20th century and was adored by several generations of women on Scatterbrains’ maternal side of the family. Though Maxfield Papillon’s childhood was spent in Brooklyn Heights, NY, he like Scatterbrains was born in the State of Georgia, but unlike her, his birth town was Milledgeville, GA on a farm. Maxfield Papillon was a small dog but he knew from the start he had a big purpose. Another thing in common with Scatterbrains, which they had many, was little Maxfield was born with some birth defects that in his first 18 months of life required them to team up for two back leg knee surgeries for luxating patellas. During the months that followed for both rehabilitations (for as soon as little Maxfield recovered from the first surgery he had to go in for the second), Scatterbrains quickly determined Maxfield earned the middle name ‘Bionic’ - after the TV show ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’ she watched as a kid - for his super willpower, determination and strength. He never complained even when they trained in the winter snow and following spring rain seasons to make him 200% fit. Luckily, Brooklyn Heights was a very dog friendly neighborhood and most stores would have treats for their four-paw friends. Scatterbrains is forever grateful to all shopkeepers who left treats out as this helped provide incentive for little Maxfield on the hard days to work his muscles and become the healthy boy he did as they continued onwards with their adventures for many years to come.

Maxfield was also very grateful to Scatterbrains for he knew she
wasn’t well in their early days together but no matter how sick she was, she
always rose to the occasion to take care of him. He could see that
Scatterbrains was in a lot of pain and not much made her feel happy, except for
him. Maxfield Papillon knew he had to work hard to get better for he was a
small dog with a big purpose.
Every day without fail while living in Brooklyn Heights,
little Maxfield would also take Scatterbrains to many of his favorite spots
including two places usually attempted more than once if Scatterbrains wasn't paying close attention. One was to always see his Goddad, Pete, who
lived in a basement level apartment on Henry Street with side walk level windows
which made it very easy for Maxfield to peer into to see if Pete was home working
on his sofa with his laptop. If so, Pete would come greet his God-pup with one
of his favorite treats and sometimes let him and Scatterbrains in to visit. This gave Maxfield the perfect chance to show off his latest crazy stunts by jumping
up on Pete's furniture and walking on glass tables, or on a nice day in the Spring he would go
outside to explore his God-Dad’s back garden as he didn't have one at home.
But little Maxfield’s early days were also filled with a
very special friend Sam who owned Pet's Emporium on Montague Street. While Sam
was good to all the dogs in the neighborhood, he often would slip Maxfield more
than one special chicken treat. Little Maxfield being companion to
Scatterbrains, and so also an entrepreneur, would return the favor as he eyed
the bones Sam kept strategically at dog level on the ground in bins for he knew
Scatterbrains couldn’t resist making a purchase for him on ‘his’ ongoing tab
just to see him proudly carrying the bone home in his jaw, which always tickled
her and anyone walking by that took notice. Maxfield caught on at an early age
that when it came to his happiness Scatterbrains would spare no expense and he
had a stash of treats hidden at home he called his treats treasure chest.
Maxfield had a Willow Street facing window spot where he
watched and wondered about the world around him and this big purpose. He would
see the pigeons fly from his view to rooftops and treetops and then out of
sight but he knew that they were off somewhere else and he often would imagine
from his window about what this bigger world was like. And from his nose knew
there was a bigger world around him beyond his walks with Scatterbrains. After
all, he was a small dog with a big purpose.
Scatterbrains during the Brooklyn years was very busy and
sometimes he would join a dog walking couple, Henrietta and Csaba, and a pack of
other dogs that became his friends and mentors. From Henrietta and Csaba, as
well as the other dogs and their human parents, Maxfield started to learn
others lived differently than he and Scatterbrains, and seemed to be in bigger
numbers. This made Maxfield most curious about where Scatterbrains’ pack was.

Scatterbrains started to take Maxfield out of Brooklyn Heights on weekend trips to both Manhattan, NY to the SoHo Grand Hotel, and also to the Sheraton in Weehaken, NJ, where he started to see the world was indeed much larger as his nose could tell. This made Maxfield feel even smaller but his purpose much bigger.

Maxfield Papillon was a natural charmer. He knew early on he could grab attention of both humans and animals alike with his charismatic looks and took no shame in making the most of every opportunity to make a new friend. Often when greeting someone he liked, Maxfield would stand on his hind legs and wave his front paws in the air walking upright towards them in excitement. And Maxfield became infamous for his high fives and double high fives. Birthdays were very important to Scatterbrains. When Maxfield turned five, six and seven human years old Scatterbrains used the High Five theme to celebrate his birthdays by having friends and family all over the world to participate in uploading photos on FaceBook. For his fifth birthday it was his High Five meatloaf cake party, his sixth birthday was the High Five Thumbs-up BBQ and for his seventh it was the High Five Peace Sign extravaganza, which included a tour around Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue and stops at his favorite pooch boutiques, where he was showered with presents and friends, family and even strangers participated. Maxfield and Scatterbrains were very surprised to be invited to crash a photo shoot with Dogslife Photography, in which Maxfield truly gave Scatterbrains one of his best photos with her by standing up in excitement as she joined him in a shot. The truth is Maxfield made sure to show Scatterbrains every day they were together how much he loved her and when she wasn’t paying attention, he would do things to get it!

Though Maxfield Papillon first visited Florida in 2006 when he was just over the age of one, it was the summer of 2008 that Scatterbrains and Maxfield took up residence on Palm Beach Island in what Scatterbrains called their Princess and Prince play-pad. Maxfield was older now and it was clearer to him what his real purpose was though he knew still Scatterbrains wouldn’t be ready to understand.

Maxfield loved the Town of Palm Beach and daily would stop at the reflection fountain by Town Hall to visit the ducks and also enjoyed visiting Pan's Garden as well as walking to the intracoastal to the big banyan trees and the Lake Trail. Being more mature and mastering how to charm the ladies, Scatterbrains had to quickly learn to catch up by learning to keep up better appearances and wear complimenting sundresses she would purchase on the sales racks at C. Orrico or Rapunzel's Closetas he enjoyed strutting Worth Avenue and daily would visit the prettiest girls at two of his favorite pet boutiques, Chateau de Puppy and Pucci & Catana. Scatterbrains was never jealous as she watched him work his magic with the ladies. If anything it made her very proud. He was the social butterfly between them. Maxfield was a small dog but with a big purpose. He worked his charm constantly, trying to meet people for Scatterbrains to become friends with. Around the town, Maxfield made many dog and dog parent friends, which included Sam, the Basset Hound, he and Scatterbrains found on a stroll without his dad their very first encounter. Maxfield also loved his friends Gracey and her dad Keith, Coco and her dad Earl, Rosie, another Basset Hound, her mom Laura, Bunnie, Minka, their mom, Susan and his best mates of all, both full breed Poodles, Marley and Ms. Lilly from Philly. Marley’s mom and Scatterbrains became friends and the four of them would walk the Lake Trail together and also go to the dog beach early on summer days for an ocean swim. Sometimes the four of them on Sunday would have brunch at Testa's Restaurant and Maxfield and Marley would be fed pancakes under the table which made them both very happy.

Living next to both the town’s firehouse and police station, Maxfield also felt a civil duty. Early every morning without fail before their walks would begin, he would walk Scatterbrains across the street to the police station’s bench, where they would sit and he would have a perfect view of their street for spotting early morning critter action, especially his arch nemesis feral kitties crossing the street. Wanting to impress Scatterbrains for his keen eye and swift patrolling skill, Maxfield would leap from the bench into a full chase with Scatterbrains following in a hot pursuit to make sure all critters knew there would be order. Scatterbrains believes Maxfield took great patrolling pride on the street and his yard partly in influence from his good friend and dog lover, Terri Taylor, Lead Parking Enforcement Officer, who always made sure to say hello to Max no matter how busy she was. She would pull over in her parking patrol vehicle and call his name, catching him off guard. He loved her so for seeing him as he was after all just only a small dog. He knew that she knew he had a big purpose. So it goes without saying that there wasn’t only morning patrol as Maxfield would wake Scatterbrains up during the night for night patrol as well. Scatterbrains learned after Maxfield mistook both a red fox and a possum for kitties that she needed to bring back-up: a flashlight for verifying his hunches. There is no denying Maxfield loved a good face-off. When he first moved to the Town of Palm Beach he would chase and hunt the lizards. This went on for a while but at some point a giant Gecko spoke to Max and told him they shared a common enemy, the feral kitty, and from that point onwards, little Maxfield became the Lizard King on Australian Avenue. There was a great battle that was going to take place where Maxfield would lead as the General but a tropical storm interrupted the battle for days until it was necessary that a peace treaty be reached. The Seabirds at the beach were very wise and while Maxfield at first wanted to have face-offs with them he couldn’t work out the incoming ocean tides and learned to respect their skills as he would watch with great interest. They also took notice and befriended him, the charmer he was, and shared with him their ancient passed down secrets for how to catch fish in the incoming tides, which became one of his most rewarding skills. Maxfield was very proud of being able to catch little minnows and enjoyed seafood very much. This also made Scatterbrains very happy on their adventures. Maxfield started to notice during the last few years on the island that Scatterbrains wasn’t sick like she had been in Brooklyn and he was starting to feel as if his purpose was being fulfilled; but something was missing. He could see his mom was becoming more aware of the world as he had on their adventures but he still worried that all of her love was only for him. It wasn’t just their neighbors who he loved but his Sunoco Gas Station friends and friends at Scotti Wines & Liquors and the Classic Bookshop off S. County Rd. While he knew Scatterbrains only had love for him, his time here on with her would be limited and he worried about her when he was gone. He made a few special human friends he would regularly visit daily regardless of Scatterbrains’ interest in them as his nose knew they were kindhearted and surely they too would know how wonderful his best friend Scatterbrains was as well. This is after all also what he began to realize was his purpose. Maxfield also earned a couple of professional titles helping Scatterbrains’ business as she needed him. He became her Senior Vice President of Stress Management and then later was promoted to Chief Muse Officer, and still is the latter. Scatterbrains will often accredit Maxfield’s wisdom and innovative ideas for the business strategies and client programs as most of their think tank sessions occurred during their walkabouts. Maxfield’s recreational activities included a love for games, especially indoor soft Frisbeeand wrestling. He also loved the dog park, car rides, the beach and his many daily adventures with Scatterbrains as they were inseparable. But most of all, he loved his sunrise and sunset yard and street patrol with Scatterbrains once they moved down to Palm Beach, where he didn’t wonder about the world from a window sill like he did in Brooklyn Heights - but got to be in it. He had face-offs with lizards, feral kitties, foxes, herons, seabirds, toads and made many, many new friends. What was most important to Maxfield was his relationship to Scatterbrains as he understood he was a small dog with a big purpose for her. He knew his time here no matter how long or short was to help the one he loved the most, and she had needed it. His nose knew even as a young pup that something was wrong with her health due to her birth defects, and her lack of a pack was from a betrayal of her species. Little Maxfield Papillon’s big purpose was to do everything he could to help her reconnect to the world, even if it started with nothing more than playing follow the leader with him on his adventures. He made sure to be a demanding handful so he could teach her how to love unconditionally again. This was Maxfield Papillon's mission: a small dog with a BIG purpose.